


Celebration and Sunder

by Artemis_Crimson



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Colonist (Mass Effect), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-16 02:10:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13044321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Crimson/pseuds/Artemis_Crimson
Summary: In which Shepard has a birthday party.





	Celebration and Sunder

Astra had just turned sixteen. Her whole family had flown in for Mindor's annual harvest festival and her birthday, Her Mother had made a giant square cake for her, white icing stained pink when cut with it's strawberry guts. Her older brothers had brought her a gold necklace and model spaceship. Her oldest sister and her wife brought her a new pair of pyjama pants obviously hand sewn and a book of poetry, each author a different species. Her little brother gave her a crude drawing of her surrounded in blue. Her Gran brought her the beat up uniform jacket she'd worn during the first contact war and her long dead husbands outdated omnitool. Her aunts had given her school supplies, a book on beautiful alien words and a tube of bright red lipstick. Her Nana and Grandpa had brought pictures of earth, seashells and a box of real spices. Her Dad had given her a new implant.

In the end that was the only gift that had mattered. After eating too much cake and the strange native wildlife that was like a mammal/bird hybrid and what felt like the whole planet's harvest in jams and fresh fruit the sprawling Shepard clan had trotted off to bed.

Except for the birthday girl. She waited until they slept then grabbed a blanket and a thermos of tea before heading out. She stayed up hours stargazing and fell asleep on top of the shipping crate she'd camped out on.

The stench of burning flesh and the distant echo of screams & gunfire woke her.

Astra wrestled with consciousness, slamming it into place as her feet hit the ground and she began to run toward her house. The screams grew louder her feet felt like they weren't touching the ground she saw a Batarian. A Batarian poking at the corpse of her big sister. She saw red and her vision turned blue as she hit that Batarian with the strongest warp she could muster. He crumpled. By the time he could look up all he could see was a fist wreathed in blue. Astra took the his heavy rifle, flicking switches until she could manage a steady stream of bullets. Her arms shook with the weight of the gun and the tacky blood on her hands. Keep moving, move into the house see it there's anyone else.

Nobody else. Keep moving, move to the plaza see if there's anyone else.

Her Gran was still alive, bleeding heavily but alive. Her omnitool crackling as she shot overload after overload at the Batarians, spitting turian insults from behind cover. The old woman was reloading the ancient and grimy pistol she always carried when she saw her bloody grandaughter staggering up the hill towards her.

"GET UP HERE GIRL THIS IS NO TIME FOR LAYABOUTS!"

Astra picked up her run, legs shaking from exhaustion but still holding. When she was in range of both her Gran and the attackers she kicked off the ground in the weakest charge she'd even done, slamming into place beside her. The world paused for a second when they met each other's eyes before the roar of combat caught Astra off guard and she realized how real this was. Gran popped out a Batarian’s eye with a precision shot she hardly looked at to line up before she saw the panic seeping into her granddaughter. She flung a hasty overlord back at the crowd before taking a precious second to reach out.

“Eyes on the enemy, nothing matters but your next target”, Astra’s lip quivered before Gran leaned her forehead against her, resting for a moment. “Don’t think sweetpea, just move” Astra gathered her courage and with it as much dark energy she could muster, inhale and pull it in just like her tutor’s had taught her.

Breath in.

Breath out.

And, _Throw!_

The figure who’d been getting too close for her comfort was tossed back like a doll, limbs breaking like one when it hit the ground. The two managed to hold off the meager gathering until a dropship landed nearby, the hold full of shrieking prisoners. Screaming crying humans of all ages, people they knew. Gran only took a second to look at them then back at Astra before her mind was made up. she hilted her pistol, snatched the stolen rifle and snapped another heatsink in. A moment to muck with the controls on her omnitool, modifying something about the gun before she was running towards the ship, two beeping red guns slung on her hips and frantically typing as she ran, not even looking as her shields where chipped away bullet after bullet.

She made it to the ship before the crowd that had been plaguing the two of them earlier did and like a comet she lit up. It wasn’t Astra’s imagination, Gran had been building up a massive shock, an emp almost that crackled into the dropship as soon as she was in range, in the pause that it gave her she jammed both guns into the stalled engines before running to the cargo bay.

 

At least should would have run to the cargo bay if she hadn’t mistimed her explosives, the guns had gone off in a great ringing fiery bang. It broke the thruster and it tore through her shields. Without that protection it only took a few shots, one hitting her right in the head meaning there was no chance of survival.

The last of the once expansive Shepard Clan couldn’t even cry out.


End file.
